Saturday, February 9, 2013

Oscar contender lied about NZ role in Tehran escape

SADLY, it’s too late to urge a New Zealand boycott of the over-rated
film Argo, which has been nominated
for several Academy Awards, including best picture.

Don’t get me wrong: it’s a moderately well-made drama,
although hardly an exceptional one. The final act, in which fugitive American
diplomatic staff are smuggled out of Tehran in the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian
revolution, is tense and well-executed.

But what should have had New Zealanders waving protest placards
outside cinemas was that the film, although ostensibly factual, unfairly and
inexplicably misrepresented this country’s role in the American diplomats’
escape.

Argo suggests that Canadian diplomats gave refuge to the Americans after
the New Zealand and British embassies refused to help, which director and star
Ben Affleck has admitted is untrue.

In fact the fugitives were initially sheltered by the Brits and
later received help from the New Zealand ambassador in Tehran, Chris Beeby, and
his second secretary Richard Sewell, both of whom are now dead.

The author of a book about the affair said Dr Beeby went out on a
limb to provide assistance, despite Iran’s importance as New Zealand’s biggest
customer for lamb. He frequently visited the Americans, provided them with food
and rented a vacant house in case they needed to make a quick escape.

What’s more, it was Mr Sewell who obtained Iranian disembarkation
forms for the Americans and took the huge risk of driving them – masquerading
as a Canadian film crew – to Tehran Airport. Robert Muldoon, who was prime
minister at the time, reportedly knew of the New Zealanders’ involvement in the
plot.

Affleck’s only explanation for the film’s misrepresentation of the
part played by New Zealand and Britain was that he “needed to get a sense that these six people [the
Americans] had nowhere else to go” other than to the Canadian embassy.

Most New Zealanders would probably say
that’s not good enough. But now that the film has been feted in the Academy
Award nominations, on top of its box office success, the falsehood has gone
global. As someone once said, a lie can be halfway around the world before the
truth has got its boots on.

* * *

THE LETTER WRITER who complained in this
paper that the so-called Treaty “debates” at Te Papa were nothing of the sort
was right.

Only one view – the pro-Treaty one – was represented
in the “debate” I attended and the few dissenters were silenced by moderator
Kim Hill, with the vocal support of the audience.

Unfortunately, pretending there’s unanimity
on Treaty issues won’t make it happen. The very reason many people distrust the
current constitutional review is that they suspect one side of the argument
over the Treaty’s place in our constitutional arrangements – perhaps the
majority side – isn’t being heard.

* * *

THE STEADY creep toward separatism
continues.

In a recent advertisement seeking a new
chief executive for the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, the preamble stated
that [the] NZNO “embraces Te Tiriti O Waitangi”.

It went on to explain: “Te Runanga o
Aotearoa comprising our Maori membership is the arm through which our Te Tiriti
o Waitangi partnership is articulated”.

The ad then listed some of the attributes
sought in the appointee. These included “a proven track record of successful
implementation of Te Tiriti O Waitangi within an organisation”.

But hang on a minute. The Treaty was
between the Crown and the signatory tribes. It was about sovereignty and
governance. What relevance could it have to the running of the nurses’ union?

But wait, there’s more. Another desired
quality in the new CEO was “ability to implement biculturalism within an
organisation with consideration to Matauranga Maori” – Matauranga Maori meaning
traditional Maori knowledge.

These requirements were listed above
virtually all others, so we can assume they are considered more important than
leadership experience or negotiation and advocacy skills, which were well down
the list.

Do you get the impression something is
seriously out of whack here?

The health sector, along with education, has long been susceptible
to woolly language and feel-good ideas about biculturalism.But I have yet to hear anyone explain how
anyone, other than a privileged Maori elite, will benefit from the creation of
a divided society.

I’m no fan of Winston Peters, but he was
right when he recently condemned“the
warped view that Maori will only progress if they have a separate system for
everything”.

* * *

HAVE THE famous Tui billboards done their dash?

Once fresh and irreverent, they are increasingly lame and laboured. They
may have reached their nadir with the recent example that read: “Mate, I won’t
piss in your wetsuit – Yeah, right.”

This wasn’t only lame and labored, it was borderline offensive and so
juvenile that I wonder whether the advertising agency responsible for the
billboards has given the job to a fourth-former who comes in once a week after
school.

2 comments:

I totally agree about the so called Treaty 'debates' at Te Papa. I don't see how you can call it a debate when the 'different' sides are almost the same. I sent an email to RNZ but don't expect a reply. A comment that was suppsoed to represent something that David Round had said was greeted with derision as far as I could hear.

About Me

I am a freelance journalist living in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand. In the presence of Greenies I like to boast that I walk to work each day - I've paced it out and it's about 15 metres. I write about all sorts of stuff: politics, the media, music, wine, films, cycling and anything else that piques my interest - even sport, though I admit I don't have the intuitive understanding of sport that most New Zealand males absorb as if by osmosis. I've been in journalism for more than 40 years and like many journalists I know a little bit about a lot of things and probably not enough about anything. I have never won any journalism awards.